“They’ve made it really tough, especially diving for lobsters,” Brett Berry said. “I used to go out and get limits, but I got maybe five lobsters this year. I’ve been diving for lobsters since high school. They took away 100 miles of Southern California coastline. It takes us double the time now to get to spots and do this. It just sucks.”

Divers like the Berrys are lucky in that they can still shoot pelagic species like yellowtail and white seabass in areas that are closed to other fishing. But they have to really know the geography and closures in order to shore dive as they did last week.

Brett Berry estimates there are about 800 freedivers in Southern California. The San Diego Freedivers lists 100 to 125 members, he said.

“We pride ourselves in practicing a sustainable way to fish,” Brett Berry said. “There’s no by-catch. No impact on the environment for what we take. But if you dive, you learn to hate seals. They’re putting a hurting on our fish populations. Our system is off balance right now.”